As we are all very much aware, California is now faced with a historic drought. Among other things, this means that farmers and ranchers will have limited access to surface water for irrigation, and many growers will not be able to sufficiently and sustainably substitute groundwater. To better prepare for water shortages like this one, growers can adopt on-farm ‘water stewardship’ practices to optimize agricultural production, achieve economic savings, and boost ecological and human health benefits.

So what can farmers do? Below is a practical checklist presented at EcoFarm in 2010 (it can also be found in our Water & Irrigation Toolkit):

General strategies

Fallow least productive fields if water supply is not sufficient for the optimizing production on all fields

Optimize soil fertility to maximize production from available water

Use reduced/conservation tillage to improve soil structure and to reduce pre-season water needed to facilitate tillage operations